1. Field of the Invention
A container and/or cabinet structure defining on the interior thereof one or more compartments isolated from the exterior through structural configuration and disposition of the locking element disposed along the junction of one or more closure elements and a correspondingly positioned portion of the housing herein the closure elements are pivotal to an open relation to provide access to the interior of the various compartments.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are numerous container and/or cabinet structures existing in the prior art and commercially available to the general public. Such cabinet or container structures are normally designed to accomplish or be utilized in a particular application. Common application is the formation of a container or cabinet structure for use as mail deposit boxes. When such structures are installed in multi-unit dwelling buildings such as apartment houses, etc. the subject cabinet structure comprises a plurality of individual compartments each having a closure element or door which allows access to the interior of the compartment by the individual tenant assigned to that compartment. In addition access to all of the multi compartments are provided for the delivery of mail to each of the individual compartments. Such access is usually accomplished by at least partial removal of entire sections of the container or cabinet structure from a supporting frame or housing thereof. This eliminates the necessity of the postal employee to open each of the individual closure elements for the purpose of depositing mail or any like articles therein. Accordingly, cabinet or container structures utilized for mail deposit and delivery generally are characterized by an overally complex structural configuration which in turn adds to the initial expense in purchasing such a unit as well as the overall expense or cost associated with the maintenance of such a unit.
In addition such multi compartment structures are frequently exposed directly to the elements due to their location out of doors or in some area reachable by rain, wind, etc. While each of the various closure elements associated with the conventional mail deposit facilities normally have some type of lock arrangement to prevent inadvertent or unauthorized opening of a given compartment. These lock elements are primarily designed to prevent such unauthorized opening of the individual doors or closure elements. A vast majority of such locking facilities do not accomplish any effective sealing or isolation of the interior of the compartments from the exterior thereof, so as to prevent seepage or leakage of water or like elements into the interior of the compartment. Similarly, it is quite common for leakage of rain water, snow or like precipitation to enter the seams or junctions surrounding the closure element thereby damaging or ruining the contents of the individual compartments.
It should be noted that while the aforementioned discussion has been primarily directed to the structure of prior art or commercially available mail deposit cabinets or containers, it is herein acknowledged that cabinet and container structures exist in the prior art having a wide variety of structural designs. However, such existing cabinet structures also suffer from the inherent problems mentioned above and generally do not provide proper protection of the contents of such compartments when exposed to the environment unless the structure of the individual cabinet or container facilities is extremely complex. Again, as mentioned above, such sophisticated structural design is often prohibitably expensive thereby eliminating the use of these more sophisticated cabinet structures in many applications.
Attempts have been made in the prior art to overcome some of the aforementioned problems and such structural attemps are evidenced at least in part of the structures disclosed in the following U.S. patents: U.S. Pat. No. 3,893,740 to England discloses a locking device having a pivoted external panel locked by a key in the conventional manner utilizing a bracket and lock assembly and associated lever element. U.S. Pat. No. 3,851,941 to Steebe shows an elongated locking member which is pivotally mounted and spring biased to engage a tongue and groove type attachment. The patent to Courson, U.S. Pat. No. 3,287,079 shows a hinge structure for an outwardly pivoting door element so as to provide access to the interior of the outwardly pivoted structure. In addition the following U.S. patents show various structural configurations of prior art cabinet or container structures: U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,013,444; 2,835,547; 3,172,713; 3,175,873; 3,238,003; 3,602,564; 3,744,864; 3,790,244; 3,936,108; and 4,092,056.
While each of the structures set forth in the aforementioned patents are specifically designed to accomplish or be utilized in a specific application, it is evident that structures of this type frequently suffer from the problems set forth above.
Accordingly there is a need in the related industry for a container or cabinet structure having one or a plurality of compartments with connected and associated closure element wherein sufficient locking facilities are provided which also act as a barrier or seal facility to prevent access to the interior of the compartments. Such a preferred and intended cabinet structure could be designed to be used as a mail deposit and collection facility or alternately could be designed for numerous other uses not specifically limited to the deposit and/or collection of mail.